Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Adding backlinks in old articles?
-
I am trying to get a few more links to get a few of my pages to rank and I am thinking about adding some more backlinks on my own site on some of the old blog articles as well as some of my other related blogs.
My question is - is it still beneficial to link from these articles that are say 1 year old or more, or would it be far more valuable to write new articles on the blog containing those same links?
-
It won't hurt to link from older articles, but I'd take a look at what kind of Page Authority / PageRank these older articles have before bothering. If new posts, without generating any new backlinks from external sites, are ending up with about the same authority as those old articles, new/old probably won't make much difference.
One thing you might want to bring into consideration is the level of traffic, and through what keywords, those old posts are getting - if they're on related topics to the pages you're trying to rank, you can channel some relevant traffic to these pages while you're building the links by creating some more visual emphasis (instead of just linking some anchor text within the post, use a call-out box to entice some clicks).
There are a lot of unknowns from my standpoint, but that's my advice based on what you've described.
-
Dave this is SEO-moz, so the whole purpose of my question was about SEO benefit
-
If you're inserting the links to improve user experience why does it matter? Just insert the links where it makes sense.
-
not exactly. I own 3 well established blogs that are on related topics. Some of the articles from each one are helpful to another and since linking from one helpful article to another would be good for the user experience, I am not really concerned about that.
What is your logic for the new articles over linking from the older articles?
-
If I understand your question correctly you're asking what is the best way to manipulate Google rankings with your network of blogs? Add links to old articles or write new articles?
My answer would be - on the new articles.
And bring down your network of blogs. It will come back to bite you one day.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Backlinks from subdomain, can it hurt ranking?
I just started doing an SEO audit and noticed I have 40,000 some odd back links from an OLD version of our site that has been moved to a subdomain. The back links are for articles that already exist on our main site. I don't think Google is picking it up as duplicate content because that site isn't being crawled anymore. Could this hurt us SEO wise? I plan on removing the site, but how long after it's been removed should those back links disappear?
Link Building | | MMAffiliate0 -
Backlinks from the Same Domain (But Different Pages)
Wayyy back when (in the days of yore) Mr Cutts spelled out in a video that page rank is distributed equally between the external links on the page. If there are two links on a page, each gets passed 50% of the available page rank etc. (Perhaps an oversimplification but bear with me). As a result of this, the company I worked for at the time (this was the dark ages when sidebar homepage links were in vogue) decreed that we would only ever approach a site about a link for a client once, as additional links had little extra SEO Value. Now you could argue that if there are 5 external links, each acquiring 20% of the power, and your site has 2 of those, you are getting 40% of the power, but lets forget the basic math for a minute. I have scoured the web and Mr Cutts' videos and I cannot find the answer to my question: If my site (Site A) has a backlink from SiteB Page 1, and a backlink from SiteB page 2 - does this count as two separate links in the eyes of Google? If the SAME site links out to my site, linking to different pages in different posts, does this give me more SEO benefit? Thanks for your time!
Link Building | | Turkey0 -
How to classify backlinks types
HI GUYS, I don't know how to classify backlinks types. Any kind of software can process those backlinks? Thank you.
Link Building | | primomc0 -
Using Schema markup for backlinks
Hi, Is there any benefits for using schema markup for backlinks. Using for Article directory submission,Drupal Submission etc.. mUz1umK.png?1
Link Building | | ruddyhapiq0 -
Content - Onsite Blog vs Article Submission
Hey Folks, First post! I have a 4 year old site with reasonable authority (49) and lots of content. Easy first question. I plan to create lots more unique, useful and relevant content however I'm in a quandary as to whether to: A. Post the content on our sites blog or B. Submit the article to an article directory like ezine-articlesand backlink to my site. Is one better than the other? Thanks, Richard
Link Building | | Rich-O0 -
Is it safe to submit the same article to multiple sites?
Hello, I am just getting into SEO and I need some guidance with article submissions. I have read in many different places that submitting articles to other sites (EzineArticles, Digg, Etc.) is a great way to build links back to your site. My question is, can I submit articles already posted on our site to these sites or is it best to write new articles?
Link Building | | ScottReinmuth9 -
Frustrated with spammy backlinks from competitors
I've only been doing SEO for my company for the last month and I've made some headway but what is really frustrating me right now is a couple of competitors that have OBVIOUS spammy links ranking in the number 1,2,3 stops all over the board for the keywords i'm going for. One competitor in particular has anchor text links EVERYWHERE that make absolutely no sense...junk like... "I have never been more saddened by anything in my life than when my grandfather got cancer. I told my uncle he needed to buy some auto insurance. I really like pork." I mean, these links are the pages with the most page authority and page rank out of all of the ones they have...and I'd venture to say that almost all of their backlinks are like this...well, half of them are just random links with good anchor text on the sidebar of a bazillion spam websites (diapers, toys, fake blogs, etc.)...while i have about 3k links and most of my top competitors have about 5k links...these guys have over 33k. Worse yet, when I look at something like Alexa rank, they have pretty high overall traffic rank but it shows traffic rank in MX (mexico) instead of the US...these guys only sell in the US! I mean, they're black hat if I've ever seen such a thing and they rank superbly on all keywords. What can I do to compete with this junk?
Link Building | | jgower0 -
Quotations about importance of social media and backlinks
Hi all, I'm looking to put together a presentation on SEO and I'm wondering if anyone knows any good quotes that relate to the importance of having content on your site that people want to use and share. I'm looking for something like this: “Today’s marketing success comes from self-publishing Web content that people want to share. It’s not about gimmicks. It’s not about paying an agency to interrupt others.” David Meerman Scott “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” but ideally something that illustrates in terms of numbers how much more traffic and seo benefits a site can expect from having good guides, pdfs and news stories that people want to share. Thanks so much for any helo you can offer. thanks, David
Link Building | | AnthOrange0